HELP MEEEEEEEEEE!

[HomerJay]

I had been a steadily winning poker player for the last couple months. Able to tolerate wins/losses ok, not great. Since I moved up in limits to .50/1 where I am comfortably rolled, I am having a hard time accepting losing sessions. I end up chasing losses by moving up in stakes. I had half my friggin bankroll on the felt a few minutes ago on a stone cold river bluff. After making me sweat bullets, villain folded, but WTF??? I need to stop this. One losing session isn't the end of the friggin world. Matter of time until I chase losses and DON'T win it back. Please help a player resist the temptation to chase losses. Any strategies out there? I know I'm not the only one to fall into this.

[Yoshi63]

If you look at your poker game as one long continuous session (ignoring the timestamps), you will see how ridiculous you are when "chasing losses." You would think "Wtf, I was winning and doing just fine, then at an arbitrary point went all in for half my bankroll?!"

Think about how what you can do to give yourself a better chance at finishing UP on the day WHEN YOU FIRST SIT DOWN. This is opposed to at the tail end of your session. Then you may be able to accept a loss more easily.

[Black winter day]

[ QUOTE ]
Matter of time until I chase losses and DON'T win it back.

[/ QUOTE ] This is how people go busto.
Nothing to say really, you know that and you know you need to stop that pattern.
Do not chaise losses, play overolled if you have a problem dealing with monetary losses.
I also had this problem.I didn't move up, but every loss was so painful...So, now i have 100 buy-ins for level i am moving up to.Is this too nitty?Perhaps.
But it makes me feel safe to know that my ROR is 0 and i can easily handle streaks of losses, cause i know they won't hurt my br.

I still tilt (like i did today), but i never even think about going up to win it back, cause "wow, i just lost xx$ and it's too much for me to handle".

[swingdoc]

Mmmm, tilting players. I sure love when someone ELSE is tilting at my table [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

But seriuosly. I have only found one sure fire cure for this sort of syndrome. I have extremely strict limits set on my play. Here are my rules for playing .5/1:

If I lose 200 dollars in one day then I am done for the day.
If I lose 100 dollars on a single hand then I am done for the day.
If i lose 500 dollars in one week then I am done for the week.

Provided you're a winning player, these sorts of rules simply force you away from the table whenever you are playing poorly. Even if you don't realize it, taking a big hit can be detrimental to your play. Of course if you're a losing player, these rules simply slow your self-destruction [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I also was a compulsive player when I first started playing. I would play way too many hours and my results would steadily decline the longer I played. I considered setting a time constraint on my play (a very good idea I think) but decided on a win limit. Once I hit $x profit for the day, I was done.

Lots of folks will say this is stupid, that you're limiting your wins, etc. And they're not wrong. However, psychologically this was crucial for me, as at the end of the day I could look back and see that I had been a winner for not only that session but for 80% of my previous sessions too.

Anyway, find rules and restrictions that work for you. Maybe none of these are your cup of tea, but you can find some others that work. Always remember that tight restrictions on starting hands are nothing without good restrictions on overall play.

[jtr]

So if you go all-in with a set and lose to a bigger set, losing a whole $100 buyin in your game, you quit for the day? Not attacking you, but that seems extreme.

[swingdoc]

Yes, those are (were?) my exact rules for playing 0.5/1NL. Let me explain my reasoning. At the time, even a good play that got unlucky would throw my play off to some degree or another, even if I didn't feel the emotional rise. Just a few sessions of this and I quickly learned that I just didn't have the experience to blow off these sorts of losses and to continue to play my best.

So, for several thousand hands I had strict money management rules. Slowly I allowed myself more situations where I could continue playing despite losses. A set beaten by a bigger set, all in pre-flop with a huge PP and it gets busted, etc. I learned to monitor and manage my emotions and play much, much better. Now my training wheels are way off the ground, but I still have some limits that I absolutely must not cross.

Coming from day trading for fun, I firmly believe that setting unbreakable money management rules is the key to early success and longterm survival. Extreme to be sure, but necessary for building discipline (at least in me!).

[Messiahkid]

[ QUOTE ]
I have extremely strict limits set on my play. Here are my rules for playing .5/1:

If I lose 200 dollars in one day then I am done for the day.
If I lose 100 dollars on a single hand then I am done for the day.
If i lose 500 dollars in one week then I am done for the week.

Provided you're a winning player, these sorts of rules simply force you away from the table whenever you are playing poorly.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is without a doubt the worst post (and advice) I have ever read on 2+2. Congrats sir.

[demon102]

def. create rules for urself like swingdoc was talking about. At cardrunners there is an article about making rules for urself, very strict rules and to follow those rules so that in the heat of the moment ur not making very bad emotionally based decisions. Also Id say if u cant accept being down a few buyins at the level that u play then drop down a level. I myself am rolled for 1 level higher than I usually play. I stay at my normal game cuz losing a buyin at the next level higher would really get me in that mode of man I need to make that money back where as at my current level Im ok with losing a few buyins without it really effecting me. I dont think swingdoc's post was bad at all. I liked it except it seemed like there was little room for error if it was meant for the $100 nl games. I dont think u should have posted at all messiah since all ur are doing is bringing negativity to a very solid discussion. I would like it if u edited ur post and added something constructive in ur post.

[Chomp]

I think I'm right in saying that even big winning players lose ~50% of their sessions.

[jeremyl464]

Hello, first post.
I agree with both sides of the argument... I recently read a good Mike Caro article in which he talks about how he disagrees with stop loss systems. His solution is to not quit when you lose a certain ammount, but to quit when you see your play begin to go bad. However for some non-pros its not that easy to identify bad play, or one may not realize they're steaming until they make a bad play for all of their chips. Anyways, I think it varies from person to person, for some it may be best to set up some sort of stopping ammount, while others who understand the variation in poker may be able to continue to play correctly.